The last time i had been to the Taj mahal was around 5 years back when i was on a bsiness trip to New Delhi. Managed to sqeeze a day trip to Agra and Mathura. It was winter in Delhi and the by the time i reached Agra, the dusk was already setting. It was the first time i saw Taj in dim light. The very look of it was enchanting.

Thinking of it gives me a slight sense of goosebumps. Though not a very romantic person that i am, it still kindles a sense of love. It has taken hundreds of men so many years together to get this icon of love created. So much was the facination for this building that the Mughal emperor had, he ordered to blind the artisans who created this. This was to make sure that there was no other monument half as grand as this built again.

Apart from all this grand build up stories associated with this icon, it is the first thing which pops up in the mind for a tourist who is visiting India. It is by far the most publicised/marketed tourist attraction in India which has other great structures like the Tanjore Big Temple, Mahabalipuram etc. Taj is the crowning glory. It is the gateway that attracts the tourists to see the other treasures of our country.

That said, Coming to the point, On the 7th of July 2007, a new set of seven wonders is proposed to be selected from a set of 21 entries based on voting by the people worldover. As things stand, Taj is curently made it to the top 10. Thanks to our govenment's red tape, not many Indians know of such a thing happening. Other countries are vying with one another to get the coveted ‘Wonder of the World’ tag for their respective entries. Since there is a lack of response from the goverment, with just 3 weeks to go, its in the hands of the 'podumakkal' (aam junta) to vote for this wonderful icon of our nation to make it to the new top 7. We have one of the largest mobile base. Voting can be done both online as well as through mobile. Lets show our strength..

The world's first cash point was installed in a Barclays Bank in Enfield. It was 40 years ago.

This BBC story of how ATM was born has some interesting bits and the most interesting of it is the reason why we have 4 digit pin number.

Its Official, Tony Blair is no more the British prime minister. He has tendered his resignation to the Queen today.

What next for him? He is believed to soon be the Quartet's (USA, Russia, EU and UN) Middle East peace envoy.

Gordon Brown is a happy man and has been invited by the Queen to be his replacement.

Labels: General

Yesterday 21st June is supposed to be longest day of the year and to make good use of the same a major PR activity was planned called the "Lights out London". Its an activity to promote the energy conservation and thereby showing that we are interested in saving the future of our planet. So on the "Midsummer Night" whole of london was invited to turn off all lights and non-essential appliances between 9 PM and 10 PM. This is heavily promoted by the Capital Radio. A simple concept and easy for anyone to participate.

As per the reports, seem to have gone well.. The photos of the 2 icons of London below tell it all...
One small glitch though in the plan was that Yesterday being the longest day.. The Sunset was not quite till little after 9 PM.. So the visual treat of the light off was a bit shadowed.. Nevertheless, it was still a good to the planet.. The men at the National Grid would be able to tell a better story :-)

Picadilly Circus with lights off - First time after the world war blackout



Picadilly Circus with the light On...



Tower Bridge - Dark without the lights



Tower Bridge - Back with the glow



London Eye - Before and After...

Labels: General

Sivaji to rock new shores alike too... Its already rocking in here, here and here ...

Like Pongal, Diwali, Christmas, Ramzan people are celebrating Sivaji...

Labels: General

For Chennaiites whether you are a Rajini fan or not, there is something nice you an feel about Sivaji. Apart from the fact that it has the superstar on the lead role or that is directed by a mega director or that its music is composed by Rehman or that its been produced by India's oldest production house.. Sivaji sure has put Chennai and Kollywood in Indian map as well as the world map.

How many times have you seen news about tamil movies ever appering in channels like CNN-IBN, NDTV, Times Now etc. Most part of past fortnight has had talks about Rajini and Sivaji on all the above channels. Leave alone the desi channels. Sivaji was on Reuters news scroll . Sivaji's Ringtones ate sold on iTunes, the first for any indian movie. Movies are running with packed theatres across the globe.

'Sivaji’ is expected to break the record for being the most screened Indian-language movie in theatres across the world. It's also the biggest budget film to ever be produced in India.

I would not be surprised if sivaji, chennai, rajini or kollywood would figure in the top search words this week. Approximately 60-70 shows are running in Chennai alone on 16 screens per day. The box ofice is ringing merrily. It sure is a revival for the current tamil film industry. Sivaji had bought the people back to the theatres.

That's the magic of BOSS

Labels: General

Caution: Potential Spoilers ahead

Disclaimer: You have to remember that this review is coming out of an ardent Rajini fan..

Dashed from work to home to have a quick change over.. went out with the gang for a dinner and was praying the waiter brings the food on time. Though the waiter was a bit slow in the start, he soon picked up his speed in delivering the food on time to the table. So we were thankfully on time for the show..

For the gang of 9 people, It was plain zipping to the theatre from there. After a bit of a late start by the theatre (23:30 show started around 30 mins later), the certificate for screening came after a host of commertials including the ones of Ayngaran the worldwide distributors of the movie. That was enough for a huge round of whistles.

The opening has a myterious masked man (we all know who it is) being taken to the prison amidst a huge crowd of wailing women and crying men. One of the inmate asks the man what brought him here and the man replies "Tried doing good for the country".. and there is the BOSS.. The movie then goes into flashback mode..Well not the kind of intro you would expect in a thalivar movie.. But that's Shankar for you...That still did not spoil the koochals and gummalams when Thalaivar's face is shown..

Sivaji is an home-returned NRI from the USA with around 200 crores rupees in his account and lot of ambition in his heart. He doesnt do what the usual NRI do - like buy big houses, start companies, etc. He wants to use up all this money to realise his dreams of building engineering and medical colleges under the name of Sivaji Foundation and offer free education to meritous students. Red-tapism and corruption stands in between him and his dreams. Worst of all, Adiseshan (Suman), a king maker and a businessman who thinks Rajini would ruin his business empire if rajini's dream project succeed, makes him pennyless using his political links. Rajini vows to hit back. BOSS then raises like a Phoenix and get the baddys into trouble and also ends up reforming the society from evils of Black money. Oh yeah, Sivaji, in this process, also manages to find the "Typical Tamil" girl, Shreya, falls in love with her and marries her.

Thalivar as Sivaji rocks, no doubt on his capacity to provide all round entertainment. The movie has comedy, action, romance, revenge and style,Style,stYle, styLe and stylE..

It takes someone like Rajini to turn 25 yrs younger. Thanks for the makeup man and the hair stylist. Rajini has quit smoking and now into gums :-). The style of popping the chewing gum (in lieu of cigarette.. remember i told you he has quit smoking) is pure Rajini formula.

Shreya, does her part of playing a typical Tamil Girl wearing paavadai davani for most part of the movie and as super hot glam doll in the song sequences..She does her glycerine shows well too..

Vivek does a good job as Sivaji's maama and his sidekick. Its a good break for him and will hopefully go long in this innings..

The opening song "Ballarikka.." was not to the mark of a Rajini intro song to be honest. Nayanthara looks chic and slim in it.. Dunno what she did to reduce to that extent. Much of the money for the movie would have gone for the "Vaaji..Vaaji", "Sahana" and "Athiradee" songs. My personal favorite was "Athiradee". Its the best picturized. I am sure that many would agree with me after seeing the picture. The way thalivar enters in Harley-Davison in the song is super.

Unlike the way Shankar refered in his earlier interview, its definitely not a tight rope walk he did to suit his fans as well as Rajini's. From start to finish, the movie is carried only by Rajini and there is very very less Shankarness in the movie (which i feel was for good). Wherever there is Shankarness, it did not go well in a Rajini movie.

Another interesting thing in this movie is that there are no punch dialogues..The only time Sivaji tries to, Vivek stops him with a "Veendaam Sivaji. Ippo ellam chinna pasanga kooda verala suzhatti punch adikkaranga. Nee adhellam pannatha, naan paathukkaraen" and comes up with a "Six ku appuram seven da, Sivaji ku appuram evan da!" taking a dig on the wannabe superstars.

In the climax, Rajini blows you off as MGR...particularly the way he changes his glasses..

In all the movie has all the ingredients to make it a super hit, the most powerful one being Rajinikanth..The movie is simply cool buddy...

Does not dissapoint the Rajini fan but is worth a watch for the non Rajini fans too..

Labels: General, Reviews

Seeing the Boss on the day he is arriving...

Labels: General

The news is out..He will be on the nearby cineplex (Cineworld,Feltham) on the 15th of June (just a week more of waiting)..Need to see how thalaivar movie opens up in the UK. May not have champhor lighting etc due to fire and safety reasons..But i think most of the other things would be there..

Cant wait to see it..Should be dashing staright from work to the theatre..Cant see any advance reservation options..
Hope i get the tickets..

Labels: General

The official logo for the London 2012 Olympics was unveiled yesterday. The logo is supposed to be a representation of 2012. Its designed in shades of pink, red, green, orange and blue. Just to make sure that this represents the olympics and not to be mistaken as some scribble, they have put the 5 olympic rings on the digit 0 (after sucking all the colours from them). The venue ? Oh yeah.. They have it over the digit 2. The design for the logo has costed around 400,000 pounds (around 3.5 crore rupees).



Well, i was not very impressed when i saw it the first time.. I now see that i am not alone. Almost all the people i talk about this seem to be feeling the same. It looks like a lot of public money has been put down the drain. A poll conducted by BBC on its website has shown a similar pattern with majority of the votes disapproving the London 2012 Olympic logo design. Infact an online petition to scrap the logo has been set up and the it is fast growing.

Infact BBC had asked its viewer to send in their Logos and to be honest most of them look far better than the current logo.

We just need to wait and see if the olympic commitee would look into this soon and get the logo redesigned.

Labels: General

Watched this movie last weekend. The movie is set around 500 BC sort of. Its about a story of 300 spartans who defend a mountain pass against a huge army of the persians. The mountain pass that they defend is the only way into the Spartan land for any invading army. A typical David v/s Goliath kinda scenario. Its a nice story. We all love the underdogs winning..That's exactly what the writer and director knew and its underlying the success formula for the movie.

What is interesting in this movie is the picturisation and the attire of all the characters. Dont ever try reasoning based on history as this story is purely from the point of view of a Spartan. It tlsk about a civilization which is centered around combat and value honour next to none etc. Hence it has a some of the finest warriors ever seen ruled by King Leonidas. There are some points in the story which i personally would not agree to like killing the messenger. But you side with King Leonidas (the hero) when he throws the persian messenger (who comes asking the king to surrender to the emperor Xerxes) into the pit for the disrespect he gives to the queen when she joins the discussions with a punch dialog something like "only spartan women give birth to real men"..

The director has employed huge sets and lots and lots of graphics to create the grand effect..The Villain emperor Xerxes looked sick.The movie also showcases bribery and treason is age old. The movie is heavily bloodsoaked and hence would not be recomended for kids and the faint hearted.

Ps: Heard that the movie is relaeased in Tamil called as "300 paruthiveerarkal"

Labels: Reviews